The Vicissitudes of Bessie Fairfax eBook

The letter was written and despatched, and in due
course of post arrived an answer from Mr. Carnegie.
He would come to Hampton certainly, and his wife would
come with him, and perhaps one of the boys: they
would come or go anywhere for a sight of their dear
Bessie. But, fond, affectionate souls! they were
all doomed to disappointment. Mr. Cecil Burleigh
wrote earlier than was expected that he had intelligence
from Kirkham to the effect that Mr. Frederick Fairfax
would be at Havre with his yacht on or about a certain
day, that he would come to Caen and himself take charge
of his niece, and carry her home by sea—­to
Scarcliffe understood, for Kirkham was full twenty
miles from the coast.

“Oh, how sorry I am! how sorry they will be
in the Forest!” cried Bessie. “Is
there no help for it?”

Madame was afraid there was no help for it—­nothing
for it but submission and obedience. And Bessie
wrote to revoke all the cheerful promises and prospects
that she had held out to her friends at Beechhurst.

CHAPTER XIII.

BESSIE LEARNS A FAMILY SECRET.

Canon Fournier went to Etretat by himself, for madame
was bound to escort her pupil to Caen, to prepare
her for her departure to England, and with her own
hands to remit her into those of her friends.
Caen is suffocatingly hot in August—­dusty,
empty, dull. Mr. Frederick Fairfax’s beautiful
yacht, the Foam, was in port at Havre, but it was
understood that a week would elapse before it could
be ready to go to sea again. It had met with
some misadventure and wanted repairs. Mr. Frederick
Fairfax came on to Caen, and presented himself in the
Rue St. Jean, where he saw Bessie in the garden.
Two chairs were brought out for them, and they sat
and talked to the tinkle of the old fountain.
It was not much either had to say to the other.
The gentleman was absent and preoccupied, like a person
accustomed to solitude and long silence; even while
he talked he gave Bessie the impression of being half
lost in reverie. He bore some slight resemblance
to his father, and his fair hair and beard were whitening
already, though he appeared otherwise in the prime
of life.

The day after her uncle’s visit there came to
Bessie a sage, matronly woman to offer her any help
or information she might need in prospect of sea-adventures.
Mrs. Betts was to attend upon her on board the yacht;
she had decisive ways and spoke like a woman in authority.
When Bessie hesitated she told her what to do.
She had been in charge of Mr. Frederick Fairfax’s
unfortunate wife during a few weeks’ cruise along
the coast. The poor lady was an inmate of the
asylum of the Bon Sauveur at Caen. The Foam had
been many times into the port on her account during
Bessie’s residence in the Rue St. Jean, but,
naturally enough, Mr. Frederick Fairfax had kept his
visits from the knowledge of his school-girl niece.
Now, however, concealment might be abandoned, for if
the facts were not communicated to her here, she would
be sure to hear them at Kirkham. And Mrs. Betts
told her the pitiful story. Bessie was inexpressibly
awed and shocked at the revelation. She had not
heard a whisper of the tragedy before.